Aetna (AET+0.4%) and Humana (HUM+0.4%) are upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse, which says a Trump administration may improve prospects for health care stocks in general and also increase the chances that AET's pending deal to buy HUM would pass muster with antitrust officials.

The firm also says prospects for Medicare Advantage appear “particularly bright,” while there is uncertainty around the stocks of companies that are highly leveraged to the Affordable Care Act as a driver of their growth stories, particularly hospitals and Medicaid MCOs.

Credit Suisse raises its stock price target for AET to $135 from $120 and for HUM to $210 from $170.

Healthcare stocks, the weakest sector this year, may become winners, as Obamacare reforms are set to be "repealed and replaced" and major legislation Clinton proposed is unlikely to be imposed on drugmakers.

While Trump hasn't set out a comprehensive alternative to the Affordable Care Act (which may see 22M Americans lose current coverage), he said he'll encourage competition between markets in different states.

AET warned during its earnings conference call that losses from the company's Affordable Care Act individual insurance plans likely will continue, even after pulling out of the exchanges in 11 of the 15 states where it sells the plans.

"If we can fix risk adjustment, we can stabilize the market, but until that happens, it's only going to get worse," Bertolini says, referring to the part of the program intended to prohibit risk selection by insurers by transferring funds from plans with lower-risk enrollees to ones with higher-risk people.

The earliest AET could return to the program is 2019, more likely 2020, and only if operations improve, the CEO says.

Bertolini says a cheaper alternative to Obamacare would have been to extend Medicare down to chronically ill people who are older than 55, as well as expand Medicaid, since the two programs already had risk adjustment mechanisms with solid systems to track eligibility and enrollment.

Not only are Obamacare premiums on the rise for 2017, deductibles will also be getting more expensive, according to an analysis by insurance comparison site HealthPocket.

Deductibles for individuals enrolled in the lowest-priced Obamacare health plans will average more than $6,000 next year, the first time that threshold has been cracked in the three years that Affordable Care Act marketplaces have been in business. Families enrolled in the bronze plans will average deductibles of $12,393.

The FDA's controversial approval of Sarepta Therapeutics' (NASDAQ:SRPT) eteplirsen for the treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) patients amenable to exon 51 skipping has translated into a difficult path to insurance coverage.

Humana says it will cover the $300K+ cost of therapy only for ambulatory DMD patients. Those who are wheelchair-bound or deteriorate to wheelchair status are apparently out of luck.

Anthem (NYSE:ANTM) has declined to cover it at all because it considers eteplirsen experimental despite the OK from the FDA.

Aetna (NYSE:AET) and Express Scripts (NASDAQ:ESRX) plan to conduct a full clinical review of the drug before deciding to cover. UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) is considering coverage with a prior authorization while Cigna (NYSE:CI) has only indicated interest in providing coverage.

The average premium for benchmark 2017 Obamacare insurance plans sold on Healthcare.gov will jump 25% to $302 compared to this year, the biggest increase since the insurance first went on sale in 2013.

Seeking to downplay the cost hikes, the administration said that including subsidies 77% of people would be able to find insurance plans with monthly premiums below $100, however, one in five consumers will only have one insurer from which to choose coverage.

Aetna's (AET-0.7%) made a hefty move toward Apple's (AAPL-1.5%) wearables platform, and it's having ripple effects on the competition.

Aetna's choice to subsidize Apple Watches for select employers and individual customers during this healthcare enrollment season comes along with a decision to offer the watch for free to its nearly 50,000 workers (not to mention some privacy concerns around insurers having direct access to health measurements).

The insurer is also pushing a number of iOS exclusive health apps and associated programs for managing health.

That deal's also a "substantial negative" for Fitbit (FIT-9.5%), says Pacific Crest's Brad Erickson, who downgraded that stock to Underweight with a fair value of $11 (shares are trading off heavily at $15.11 today).

Erickson says checks indicate Fitbit's flagship holiday offering, the Charge 2, is off to a slow start: "Inventory is accumulating in the channel and sell-through is below initial Blaze/Alta levels."

According to an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation, nearly a third of U.S. counties will likely be served by only one insurer that participates in an Affordable Care Act marketplace in 2017, representing an increase from 7% this year.

The data underscores the degree to which industry retrenchment from low enrollment and high service costs is curtailing options within the marketplaces.

Insurer departures will likely lead to higher prices, analysts have warned.